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Picture Page July 2010
Jabez H. Gill's reloading cartridge case.... A discussion on the IAA cartridge forum a couple of months ago centered around Gill's replaceable anvil, which was tested at the Frankford Arsenal in early 1877. While I had not heard of Gill's anvil before, I was familiar with the name Gill in reference to U.S. military small arms ammunition development. Jabez H. Gill started work at the Frankford Arsenal in 1864 as a machinist, working his way up to foreman and then draftsman, and in 1881 he was appointed as the arsenal armourer. He designed many of the cartridge making machines that were used by the arsenal for fabricating and loading the rifle and revolver cartridges that they produced. In 1879, he was issued a patent for the primer that was used when the Benet inside-primed cartridge case was phased out and replaced by an externally-primed reloading cartridge case. In 1882, he patented a priming and de-priming tool that was standard issue with the reloading tool sets produced from 1883 until sometime in the early 1900s.
I have not been able to determine if the only cartridges produced
for testing at that time were the 100,000 using Gill's case with its
removable anvil, or if perhaps
other reloading designs were produced.
Unfortunately, the Report of the Chief of Ordnance for fiscal year 1877 does
not have a separate listing for re-loadable cartridges in its totals of small
Another draftsman's print from the Zupan book shows two primers that were used in developing the reloading
cartridge at the Frankford Arsenal. These primers are identified as 'J. H. Gill's Pat 1868 Frankford
Arsenal' on the left side of the print and 'Hobb's Patent Bridgeport' on the
right. I It is possible that many, if not all, of the R F 4 77 headstamped re-loadable cartridges were fitted with Gill's replaceable anvil. As I have only one of these cartridges in my collection, I am not inclined to disassemble it to determine verify that it has the removable primer anvil. I'd love to see pictures showing the details of one of these cartridges that has been sectioned if someone has one.
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A well-used old Colt Model 1860 Revolver........
In spite of the fact that much of my attention is focused on old ammunition, I like to think of myself as a fairly well-rounded individual, with interests in other things as well; I like old guns, too. I picked up the Colt Model 1860 revolver pictured below several months ago from 'Honest' Ron Huskey, a friend of 30 or so years and a collector of Winchesters, Colts, and other things that go bang, although pocket watches seem to be one of his latest interests. I have shared tables at our local Tallahassee gun show with Ron for many of those years. As is often the case at the Tallahassee show, not much happens from an antique gun and ammo perspective, as nearly everyone attending the show tends to be interested in new guns and ammo, and most of the sellers usually have their tables filled with an assortment of the modern guns, ammo and accessories that this mostly shooting crowd is looking for. Not so with Ron and me - we have antique guns and related items on our tables, and that's all we generally are looking for when we make our rounds checking out the other tables. As a result, Ron, Ron's wife Barbara, and I tend to spend a lot of time at our tables, which gives us plenty of time to talk and get caught up on what's been happening in our lives over the prior few months since the prior gun show. As is usually the case, by Sunday afternoon we are all talked out, and we typically get down to wheeling and dealing for something that caught our eye on the other fellows table. As is also usually the case, having not sold enough to recoup our table and food expenses for the weekend, we tend to be desperate for an infusion of cash, and therefore are not in the best frame of mind to be on the selling end of one of these Sunday afternoon transactions. The strategy as the potential buyer in one of these Husky-Hildebrand deals is to not show any interest in the item that you have taken a fancy to until Sunday afternoon, and to hope that the other fellow actually brings up the subject of a possible deal involving the coveted item, as this indicates that he is really anxious to sell. This is sometimes tough, as there is the slim chance that someone else will buy the item prior to Sunday afternoon. Everything went as I had hoped for with the Colt revolver, although I had a close call on Saturday when someone came close to buying it, but eventually changed his mind when he noticed the trigger and a couple of screws were missing.
I
bought the revolver with the intention of doing only what work was required to
get it back to shooting
condition. In other words, I wanted the final product to look its age, and
to reflect the use and abuse that it had experienced over the years. After
six or seven hours of scraping with a piece of brass to remove the scattered
rust and clean out the assorted markings and tinkering to tighten up the
In the process of cleaning and repairing an old gun such as this, you
tend to get real familiar with it. Such was the case with this one. While it has mixed
serial numbers, all fall within the first four years of production. This
strikes me as a little odd. With production of the M1860 spread over twelve
years and numbering in excess of 200,000 revolvers, I would expect at least
one of the numbers to be over 100,000 unless the assorted parts were
assembled into a revolver in the early years of the model's production. The
trigger guard and back strap are numbered 6374, the frame is numbered 26582,
and the barrel is numbered 89042, indicating production in 1861, 1862 and
1863, respectively. There is no number visible on the cylinder or the wedge. The barrel appears to have
originally been on one of the approximately 130,000 U. S. military contract
revolvers, as it bears two inspection marks, a 'W' on the right side
The trigger guard is quite unusual, as it is made of steel rather than the usual brass. Except for those revolvers made at Colt's London Armoury, I am not aware of any other Model 1860 Colts revolvers having steel trigger guards. The London Colts are typically in the 160,000 serial range or higher, so it is not likely that this trigger guard is from one of them.
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Gill
was granted patent 190208 for a re-loadable cartridge case that employed a
removable primer anvil on May 1st, 1877. The patent covered a copper
case with a thicker, stronger base and rim, and corrugations along its sides
to help prevent the case from expanding to the extent that it became jammed
in the rifle chamber upon firing. These improvements were intended to
address extraction problems that at the time were thought to have been partly
responsible for Custer's defeat a year earlier. Also covered by the patent
was the tool that was used to form the inside of the head of the cartridge case and,
almost as an afterthought, the three pronged anvil, about which he gave few
details in the patent specifications that accompanied his drawing. Gill's primer
anvil was not an integral
part of the primer pocket as was used on the Berdan case; instead, it was a
separate piece from the case, and could be easily removed and replaced if
necessary. The specifications are included below. 
According to James Zupan,
author of Tools, Targets, and Troopers, on January 16th of 1877 Gill submitted
his design for a reloading cartridge case to Major James M. Whittemore, the
Commanding Officer of the Frankford Arsenal. Whittemore made notes on the
draftsman's print of the design, which said in part 'This cartridge is
intended to reload if necessary. The anvil is made and pressed in so as to
be practically permanent, and will last longer, for the work required of it,
than the case'. The draftsman's print, which is shown here, is from Mr.
Zupan's book. Major Whittemore recommended that 100,000 reloading cartridges
be produced for testing using Gill's case. According to an entry in a five
page handwritten Record of Alterations and Improvements in Rifle,
Carbine, and Revolver Ammunition, Cal. .45 prepared
in 1878, which I received a copy of some years ago, production was begun on
March 14th, 1877. These cartridges had Berdan primers and were loaded with
405 grain bullets, the standard rifle bullet at that time. They were also some of the
first cartridges produced by the arsenal that had headstamps, as
headstamping
was commenced on March 22nd. The headstamps on the reloading cartridges were
R F 3 77 and R F 4 77. 
arms ammunition produced in that year, nor does it contain any reports that
address the testing of this ammunition. In addition, the labels on the
boxes of this ammunition provide no information regarding to the design of
the cartridge. The label shown above was copied from The .45-70
Springfield by Al Frasca & Robert Hill. 
have not been able to locate an
1868 patent issued to Gill, but it would appear one benefit of his
primer design with its rebated edge would be to make de-capping of the case easier when
using one of the Berdan tools that pierces the primer cup with a sharp punch
in order to remove it. Otherwise, his primer appears to be of the Berdan style, consisting of the
open cup and a pellet of fulminate. I have never seen
this primer on any cartridge, much less a .45-70, so it is not likely that
it saw any use beyond developmental purposes. Notice that this same primer
using Gill's removable anvil is included in the sectioned case head shown at
the top of the drawing. The Hobb's patent that is referred to is most likely
A. C. Hobb's patent 94743, issued September 14th, 1869. It was an improvement
in the Berdan primer, and covered sandwiching the fulminate between two
layers of varnish to make it more water-proof. This primer is likely to be
the one that was primarily, if not exclusively, used on the R F
3 77 and R F 4 77 headstamped reloading cartridges. 
The
revolver didn't have much going for it. In addition to the missing trigger
and screws, it has mixed serial numbers, the barrel and cylinder were quite
loose, the head of the hammer screw had sheared off and had been epoxied
back in place, and the internal parts were worn out. What it did have in its
favor was that, aside from the glued in hammer screw head, the revolver
appeared to be in as-found, unmessed-with condition, sporting a consistent
aged
brown finish on all of its surfaces and scattered patches of rust that
suggested that the parts that were there had been together for a long time;
furthermore, one chamber in the cylinder was still loaded. Also going for it
is the fact that the M1860 Colt, because of its graceful styling, is a
beautiful gun regardless of of what condition it is found in. 
barrel and
cylinder, two orders to Dixie Gun Works for parts, and a little more time spent fitting the parts and adjusting the timing, the revolver turned out
pretty good. It looks its age and still has all the wear, dents, dings and
patina that it acquired over the last 150 or so years. Needless to say, I
wasted no time in test firing it, which fortunately went without a hitch. As
is apparent in the close-up pictures, the replacement screws and the trigger
are rather obvious, but I will eventually get around to making them look a
little less so without actually trying to hide the fact that they are not
original to the gun.
of
the lug and a 'SS' on the left side, as shown in the pictures on the left
and right. The other parts appear to have been
taken from civilian revolvers, as none has any markings that would indicate
that they went through the government inspection process. 
We
often hear someone make the statement 'If only it could talk' when looking
at an old firearm. While this particular revolver comes up short of actually
talking, it does provide a hint regarding its past. The
grips are well-worn, and have the name Dick Ingersoll cut into the left
side. I have no doubt that the grips are original to the grip frame based on the
condition of the screw that attached the bottom of the backstrap to the
trigger guard and the amount of work that was required to remove it. In
addition, the condition of the carving suggests that it was present through
most of the wear and tear that shows on the grips. An internet search yielded a George F. Ingersoll who went by the name
Dick. He was born in 1858 in Lynn, Massachusetts, moved as a child with his
family to Boone, Iowa in 1865, traveled with his father to the Black Hills
during the 1875 gold strike, was employed in 1878 as a cow hand by the
Lee-Scott Cattle Company of Fort Worth, Texas, was trail boss on cattle
drives of Lee-Scott steers from Texas to Eastern Montana beginning in
1884, and eventually settled on the Bow-Gun Ranch in the vicinity of Terry,
Montana. Perhaps George F. was the Dick Ingersoll who carved his name in the
grip of the revolver, perhaps as a youngster growing up in Iowa, or later in the
Black Hills gold diggings. 